


The Curious Case of Ron the Vent Creature

by hannah999



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, F/M, Gen, Hatred of Mary Sues has lead to this, Horror, Humour, More friendship than any sexytimes, Other, Romance, The Doctor actually being told he looks like a giraffe, but you never know
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-18
Updated: 2013-03-19
Packaged: 2017-12-05 17:31:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/725951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannah999/pseuds/hannah999
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first thing she saw was a streak of blue as it bounced off her face and as the person moved back Sarah realised with great surprise and discontent that the artifact was, in fact, a bow-tie. A bow tie tied to the neck of a baby giraffe.  11th Doctor+OC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello! This is my first ever story and, well, feedback is always lovely! Even if it is to tell me I'm doing something wrong. This fic may go up to M at some point and then even further to an E if I'm feeling the smut. Anyway, big thanks to my friend Robyn who is awesome and is not yet sick of me rambling at her about this. So without further ado, here is it:

Chapter 1.

The corridor was dark and silent as Sarah closed her office door and started down the abandoned hall, her footsteps following her along as her mind went over the last of the paperwork that she left for tomorrow morning. Her workmates had left earlier on at a, somewhat, sensible time but she knew she had to get through at least half of the work that cluttered her desk. Three hours and a 5 minute facedown nap on the desk later and she was relatively finished, just a few more pieces to be signed and sent off in the morning and she could finally relax without her manager’s, quite frankly, atrocious breath breathing down her neck. 

It wasn’t until she reached the end of the corridor that she had a sneaking suspicion she had left her keys on her desk: a jingle and a fruitless rummage through her satchel later and she let out an uncharacteristic shriek accompanied by a childish foot stamp. Yes, she had left her keys back in the office and the last possible thing she wanted to do was turn back around when by all rights she should be heading towards a long bubble bath followed by her atrociously comfy bed. With one last remaining huff she flounced back around and stomped down the hallway, crashing through her office door and snatching up her keys with a triumphant shout. With a litany of ‘bath, bed, bath, wine, bed’ going through her head Sarah once again retreated from the painful sight of her office and made her way down the still-deserted hallway, it seemed to have gotten darker without her presence and as she headed towards the exit she became aware of the oppressiveness of the shadows closing in around her. She quickened her footsteps as she neared the exit and rushed out of the door into the cool night air. 

She took in a breathe of the chilly breeze and felt some the urgency leave her as she crossed the parking lot to her car; a beat up yellow Kia Picanto fondly named Kyle that was on it’s last legs 3 years ago when she bought it second-hand from an erstwhile student who promised that the stains in the back seat would ‘totally wash out’. As she slid into the front and started up the car she felt the prickling of heat at the back of her neck, a feeling she normally felt when her aforementioned manager was watching her from the adjacent room. Rolling her shoulders and shifting the car into drive she checked the rear-view mirror out of the corner of her eye and jerked in her seat when she saw a shadow move within the building. Pressing her fist into her eye and then dragging it through her tangled muddy brown locks she checked her mirror again and saw nothing. Still suspicious she gave the building the stink eye through the mirror and manoeuvred the car out of the parking lot, onto the main road; never seeing the luminous eyes from the shadows within the old fashioned redbrick office block following her form. 

oOo

As the alarm clock blared out it’s cheery tune a flying hand emerged from the lump of blankets to the left and smacked it halfway across the room. Shortly after a head followed the arm and Sarah painfully pulled one eye open to assess the situation. The clock read 6.45 and Sarah gave a mournful grunt as her face quickly descended back into the pillow. A series of denials later and she could no longer placate herself with the mumbled sentence “5 more minute’s won’t hurt” because it would hurt, especially if she was late handing in that paperwork. The reminder of such things made Sarah’s face magnetically head towards the nearest surface but she persisted and hauled herself out of the hideously comfy bed and into the clothes laid out the night previous. Before she knew it she was in front of her fridge pouring out her morning cup of orange juice and as she took her first sip her face involuntarily inverted itself as she only just became aware of her morning ritual of washing her face and cleaning her teeth which she must have sleep-walked through. Shrugging to herself she gulped the rest of the cup and wiped her face on her sleeve as she picked up her satchel and parker coat from the living room coach; throwing on the offensive looking item as she rushed out of her one bedroom flat. Two minutes later she was charging back through the front door again with a scowl on her face as she snatched her keys up that were innocently sitting on the kitchen counter and mumbling about the “self-moving little bastards”.

30 minutes later and she was gracelessly ambling out of the car and hurriedly slamming the door as she set off towards the old office building, unceremoniously being dragged back by the fact the door in question had decided to try and eat her coat. Tugging on her green parker stuck within the car she shouted off a pointed “Seriously!” towards the sky before huffing and heaving the rest of her coat pocket out of the offending car. “Ha!” She exclaimed as it gave free suddenly; she stumbled to stay upright and gathered her wits. With a well-aimed kick to Kyle in reprimand she headed towards the office doors with a purpose that was single-headed. One more wrong thing today and she thought she might implode, this, clearly, was not her day but like the pessimist she was, the sentence ‘this day could not get any worse’ ran through her head; and as she rushed into the building and through the hall up towards her office she realised that the sentence ‘this day could not get any worse’ should, in fact, be deleted off the face of the planet because clearly like all cliché bad days, it could get worse. 

The door to her office offered her salvation, a nicely chaotic room cramped with a large oak desk and a 90’s computer that made noises as if it were a charter plane attempting to lift off. Sarah approached it with relish at the idea of getting that stupid paperwork off her desk and out of her life so she could carry on with the preparation of other more important and blessedly more interesting projects. As her hand closed around the handle and went to pull down a high pitched cough reached her ear. “No.” She whispered and thus proceeded to turn the handle. “Hem, Hem”. Sarah realised that this was it, the moment that things could clearly get worse. She straightened up her spine and plastered a smile on her face that felt as if it would split her face open at any moment causing her to be left like The Joker from Batman. But that was okay, she thought to her self, because then she could blow up this building with her manager in it and stumble away laughing manically as Christian Bale follows her into the night and capture’s her with the intention of interrogating her, maybe tying her to a chair and, “Hem, Hem!” 

She turned, “Yes.” She stated briefly, her smile threatening to turn into a snarl as she looked upon her manager, a frail creature, with a smile as sharp as her eyes. 

“Why, Miss Turner, what a pleasant morning. I hope you’ve completed the paperwork I left you yesterday.” She simpered into Sarah’s face, her rancid breath already saturated in coffee made Sarah’s eyes burn in her sockets as she tried not to blink. She had heard that if you faced a predator you always looked them in the eye and tried to blink less, that, along with punching them in the nose and beating a hasty retreat but somehow she thought that that might not work out so well in her favour in this situation. 

“Of course, of course! There are just one or two things to sign off on and then it should be all ready to go Mrs Bruckner.” The smile threatened to consume her face any minute now.

“Lovely, lovely. Just make sure it’s done on time Sarah.” The remark was warm but failed to reach Mrs Bruckner’s eyes and Sarah turned with an uneasy feeling in her gut. She hastened to turn her door handle and catching a glimpse of her manager watching her from her own office doorway; threw a shaky smile in her direction and slammed the door shut. 

Sarah stayed staring at the door until she emitted a full body shudder and wiggled her arms about trying to throw off some of the nastiness excreted by her boss. She stopped though as she heard the faint sounds of rustling coming from under her desk. Her head automatically turned towards the sound but too many zombie marathon’s had taught her to never go and look where the creepy sound came from, however, that didn’t stop her feet moving toward it. As she lifted her bag off her shoulder and gently placed it on the ground she thought of how fast she could outrun her boss and quickly glanced down to see she had her converse on. Good. She could outrun half the building with these. She came towards the front of the desk and leant over it scooting across the smooth surface and pushing useless pieces of paper to the side as she came towards the edge. The faint rustling continued as she took a deep breath and threw her head over the edge. She stopped, suddenly wide-eyed as the occupant under the desk did the same. 

Locked in a staring showdown, Sarah ran through her options in her mind. 1) Scream 2)Scream and run as though the fire of hades were suddenly in her pants or 3)Calmly reacquaint herself with the floor and head towards the door, maybe get a drink, possibly talk to Gerry; the rather lovely looking Secretary and most definitely take her work somewhere that wasn’t sharing a space with a rat; a rat, which was, at this very moment, giving her the beady eye. Calmly settling her feet back onto the floor she plucked up the necessary documents, grabbed her bag and walked through the door. 

If she had stayed a moment later she might have seen the grate over the vent move, or she could have heard the laboured breathing that came from within. Alas, she did not. 

oOo

By the time lunch had rolled around Sarah had completed all the necessary paperwork along with a few other non-consequential items, signing them off with a flourish. She had also managed to come up with a few new project details, make a hot chocolate in the astonishingly bare office kitchen and get Gerry’s number, the Irish man had blushed and smiled while handing it over causing Sarah to have to cull her sudden need to smoosh him to her bosom. However, like all good things, it did eventually have to come to an end and the sudden lull in work and motivation caused Sarah to doodle on the edge of her notebook, a talent she had perfected and utilised throughout university. Just as she reached the peak of a mountain that was to be ‘candy land’ her pencil snubbed snapped and careened off the page. Sighing again, something that was becoming an occupational hazard within her life, Sarah heaved herself up out of her commandeered chair within the main office area, sequestered to a corner that she had newly dubbed ‘hers’, she bypassed her office and headed towards the stationary cupboard that was at the far right of the main hallway. No way was she heading back to her office room, not for all the sharpeners and rolly-comfy chairs in the world. 

Heading towards the cupboard with a single headed purpose, Sarah failed to recognise the strange groaning and screeching that was coming from the male toilets. Stopping still mid-walk, she backed up until she was once again by the toilet door, leaning in, she heard the groaning again, louder this time, it sounded as if someone was scratching keys up and down a piano string. She leaned further in and placed her hand on the door when suddenly a dull ‘thump’ came from inside the room as if something had landed. All intentions, however, to push open the door fled from her mind once the sound of a young male entered the equation. 

“Oh, now what do we have here sexy?!” came the voice, loud, excitable and young. Sarah flew back from the door, the complexities of male toilets escaped her but she thought she might have just overheard something decadent and extremely sexy. Almost tempted to push the door open and find something that would undoubtedly be fun she pushed herself to continue towards the intended cupboard and to leave the, whoever it was, to their business. Although wholly unprofessional for the office, if Sarah was one thing, she was not a buzz kill. Striding towards the cupboard she climbed into the veritable feast that was the stationary department, a place, she thought, that she could very well see herself living in. Searching for a sharpener, however, seemed like a fruitless endeavour as she checked over all the shelves. Balefully glaring at the room around her as she stormed out of the room but not before grabbing a bunch of post-it notes out of spite. 

It seemed as if she had no choice but to return to her rat-infested office for that damned elusive sharpener. Facing the door to her office Sarah mentally prepared herself for what was about to happen, she could hear a somewhat loud commotion going on within the main desk area, however she paid it no such attention as she breathed deeply and opened the door only the tiniest amount that let her slide through and close the door again. Now in the room she could no longer hear the commotion from outside but instead the rustling and pitter-patter of tiny little rat feet. She fought off a shiver and headed towards the desk. As she got closer she heard a crunching sound and winced, that desk was oak, oak that was now, with a doubt, marred by little rat teeth. Breathing deeply she came around the back of the desk and headed towards the top draw that held her stationary stash, not taking any notice of what was underneath the desk and right by her feet. A sudden movement below her out of the corner of her eye belied her confidence and in that instance Sarah’s insatiable curiosity overwhelmed her fear and so she looked. 

The first thing she noticed as she looked downwards was a bony elbow sticking out from underneath the desk, it was shaking somehow and as Sarah bent lower to examine whatever it could be her breathe caught in her throat a strangled sort of sound wishing to be released. Underneath the desk was something, which was the only way that Sarah could possibly describe it. It was something. Something naked, bony, with olive tinged skin and it was thin and she didn’t mean that colloquially speaking; this something was skeletal. The vertebrae on it’s back protruding as it was crouched over something else on the floor. And that was when she figured out why it was shaking. It was tearing and ripping at something on the floor and as she focused on it she could make out the red of blood and came to the sudden conclusion that that was the rat. A hysterical sort of laughter bubbled up within her as she thought of the death threats she herself had against that rat. She must have made some noise as the something turned suddenly, startling Sarah from her crouched position onto her bum. Now that it was twisted around to face her she could see the features of it’s face; gaunt and skeletal like the rest of it, the creature had large round eyes that were somewhat obscured by it’s hair that hanged from it’s head, instead of the usual ten fingered and toed human it had only three fingers and toes that were rounded and padded. The eyes, however, were what drew her attention, they looked woeful in the light of day and especially in the light of the act it was just committing. Breathing hard the little creatures chest moved at an incredible speed, like a rabbit’s Sarah thought. After a minute of standstill Sarah became restless and went to move her arm, the creature’s gaze zoomed straight in onto the offending appendage and Sarah froze again, before lifting her arm slowly. The creature had looked frightened, just like her, although frightening looking it looked haggard and frail. The most absurd thought occurred to Sarah in this moment, that at this time the creature looked as if it needed a good hug, and Sarah had always been told she was a very good hugger. Slowly reaching out she tried to block out the image of blood smeared on the creature’s lips and cheeks and focus only on trying to reassure the little being. Just as she was about to touch it’s cheek a bang came from the hall and the creature flinched back within the desk hitting the sides as it panicked.

“Shhh, shhhh! It’s okay, it’s okay, just take it easy” for a moment Sarah thought her words would take effect, however, shortly after another bang resounded throughout the office and the creature shrieked in freight; a haunting sound that attacked Sarah’s eardrums, causing her to clutch her ears and duck her head between her knees hoping that it would help. Feeling something rush by her she opened her eyes just in time to see the creature escape through the vent; one bony foot scrabbling inside and disappearing. 

Falling back on to her bum, Sarah sat in silence for what must have been a good 5 minutes before she stood up, opened the top drawer and grabbed the sharpener hidden within. Mechanically walking to the door and opening it, Sarah stepped though and stood in the middle of the hallway, lost, staring at the opposite wall as if it would suddenly impart to her the meaning of the world. Hell, she would take the meaning of the last 10 minutes if that would help, but alas, the wall was not forthcoming at all. She ambled towards the main desk area, specifically back towards her little sequestered corner with her comfy chair and her doodling. She needed a moment, maybe three, to be able to process what the actual living fuck had just happened. She turned the corner deep in thought with a single-mindedness aimed towards that comfy chair when she collided with someone. The first thing she saw was a streak of blue as it bounced off her face and as the person moved back Sarah realised with great surprise and discontent that the artifact was, in fact, a bow-tie. A bow tie tied to the neck of a baby giraffe. That was Sarah's first impression, however, now that she looked harder and there really was no way that she couldn’t because the person still hadn’t moved out of her personal bubble, the man was wearing a tweed jacket and dark pants with a face like a baby giraffe. Feeling an existential crisis coming on, Sarah's psyche could take no more, a hysterical laugh that had been building for quite a while begged to be released. And it was; right in the man’s face. 

A bewildered look followed by a vaguely hurt one settle on the mans visage as Sarah continued cackling until she ran out of breathe, weasing out a faint “Sorry” towards the end.

“Are you okay?” The man said as he, somehow, came even closer to Sarah, this person clearly didn’t believe in the existence of a personal bubble, never mind the use of one. His eye that was uncomfortably close to her own searched around her features as she cocked her head to one side; the tiny black spots encroaching on her vision made it hard to concentrate, hadn’t she heard that voice before? Yes, she had. She’d sworn she had. It was coming to her, yes, YES.

“Aren’t you that man that was having sex in the toilets!?” She shouted. The last thing Sarah saw before the encroaching blackness took her was the stranger’s face going a strange colour of puce before his arms started wind milling in a facsimile of an attempt to try to catch her before she plummeted face first upon the floor.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey! So here’s chapter 2, hope it’s alright! Feedback is always lovely so don’t be shy to review! There might be some typos that I’ve missed, if so, I apologise. This story might work its way up to an M rating in the future but at the moment I’m just having fun playing around. Enjoy:

Chapter 2.

The first thing that Sarah became aware of as she came back to consciousness was a strange sort of mournful humming sound surrounding her, then the pain kicked in. Her brain felt at least three times bigger than her skull and she had an ache on the side of her forehead, reaching up to touch it, she held back a wince and concluded that the strange giraffe-man had not, in fact, caught her on her way to meet the floor. You’d think such gangly arms would be faster than that. With the remembrance of the man so too came the memories of the rest of the day; the rat, the something that she had affectionately dubbed Ron in her state of shock, and then her bout of hysteria. Feeling shame pool low within her stomach Sarah refused to open her eyes. Nope, not gunna happen. Maybe if I just lay here everything will miraculously stop getting weird. She scrunched up her face as she felt a gentle prodding to her cheek, screwing her eyes closed and shaking her head as the prodding escalated to poking. 

“Come on! I know you’re awake, you know you’re awake. Let’s all be awake together.” Before the giraffe-man’s voice had even finished two fingers had pried the eye-lid of her left eye open. Forcing her to come eye-to-eye, quite literally, to what she thought was the giraffe-man, but it was hard to be certain when all she could see was the man’s green cornea. As she relented and opened her other eye Sarah become distracted by the strange colouring’s imbedded within his eyes, it wasn’t just green as thought of at first but blue and brown all swirling together and culminating in a ring of golden yellow that circled the iris. Stardust. Sarah thought; that’s what she imagined stardust would look like.

“Hello!” The jaunty greeting snapped her out of her reverie; she became increasingly aware of the close attention she had just paid him and felt an alarming blush break it’s way across her cheeks.

“Bubble” she croaked out “Personal bubble. Learn it. Utilise it. Obey it.” Her throat was scratchy and sore, how long had she been out? She pushed up onto her elbows as he huffed out a breath and took a large measured step away. “How long was I a passed out for? What happ-“ Her ability to make speech or any sounds at all screeched to halt as she looked around the room she was in. She was currently lying on a seat of some kind, almost like the one’s in her car, although less stained, but that was not the focus of her attention. It looked like some kind of console room from a badly made 80’s sci-fi film; high walled silver chrome emitting a cold chill which contrasted with what stood in the middle, a veritable warm console; hexagonal in shape the thing emitted lights from every direction and was far too technical for Sarah’s brain to conceive, especially with the 76 trombones practicing their recital within her skull at this very moment. The thing that especially drew her attention though, was at the very heart of the room and the very console itself; it was a large cylindrical tube that went straight through what Sarah thought was the control panel and as high as Sarah could see while straining her neck upwards. It glowed a warm blue and pulsated slightly while the contraption within the tube moved up and down; if she strained hard enough she could just about make out the humming sound that she had heard earlier. Without her realising Sarah had moved across the room towards the console, distracted by the pretty lights she moved her hand to prod a large red button.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! No touchy!” Sarah snatched her hand back as the sudden sting of the slap the giraffe-man had administered registered in her star struck brain. She shot a baleful glare towards him as he shouldered his way between her and the button, stretching himself wide to encompass as much of the console as he could. Sarah backed off a few steps while shooting the big button a look that clearly stated that this wasn’t over, preoccupied in a staring contest with the button Sarah was only just beginning to realise where she was. Alone. She was alone. With giraffe-man and what looked like an alien spaceship. She took a deep breathe in and then out; she’d already passed out once and she didn’t plan on doing it again within the next 50 years if she could help it. She went through all the possibilities; it couldn’t be a prank, she moved to London 2 years ago and hadn’t met an abundance of people and the people she had met hardly had the imagination to pull this off, while her friends back in Bristol had already moved onto the next big steps in life; the kids, the weddings, all things that made Sarah shudder and blanche. Okay, so not a prank, which unfortunately rules out most of Sarah’s theories. Unless it really looked like this man had an alien spaceship, did that make him an alien? Weeeeell… she thought, the idea didn’t seem completely implausible considering what she had seen earlier. Was this man and Ron connected? Either way, Sarah’s imagination started to run double time: alien ship = alien, right? And what do alien’s do to human’s they’ve abducted… She took another deep breath and slowly started backing away from the giraffe-man/alien who had turned his back to her and was seemingly stroking the console and mumbling to it in concerned tones. She glanced behind her to see where she was going and saw what looked like a double door exit. Perfect. All she had to do now was reach the doors without him noticing, which seemed easier said than done because as soon as she picked up her pace towards the exit she heard a rustle and then a shout;

“Oi! Where d’you think you’re going?!” Just a few more steps, just a few more A hand landed on her shoulder as she made a futile lunge towards the door. Suddenly plucked from thin air she was suspended mid jump by surprisingly strong arms, a frozen moment later and Sarah plucked herself out of her surprise and started thrashing in his hold. “No! Please! Not the probe! Anything but the probe! I tried it with an old boyfriend before and I didn’t like it! Please have mercy!”

A serious of spluttering words later and more useless wriggling and Sarah had made just enough room to manoeuvre around in the man’s hold. As she peered into his face, she stopped trying to free herself immediately and had to supress a snort. His face was frozen, seemingly stuck on a horrified expression with his mouth agape, he tried to make some sounds but the only thing that would come were strange squeaking noises. She decided to repay his earlier rudeness and started poking his cheek then his overly large chin to close his mouth. It shut with a click and he managed to swallow enough to emit a weak “No.” Still feeling unsure as to what to do, Sarah made an impatient sound, his grip weakened enough for her to slip to the ground and she made two quick steps back in case he decided to do anything she termed as ‘dodgy’.

Seeing her move away from him the man straightened up his clothes and started to ramble, “No, I wouldn’t ever, I mean, I never have, really? An old boyfriend? How did? No. I don’t. Don’t tell me. Just… I need your help. With something. Not that something! Not like that! Just.” A deep breathe in “You saw something earlier today didn’t you?”

As Sarah comprehended what had spewed from the stranger’s mouth, she decided to ignore most of it as the last sentence resonated within her. She didn’t know this man, didn’t know if he was good or bad. Ron was different, might be an alien from all that she’d seen today or even an undiscovered species and who was this man who wanted to know about the creature? Was he trust worthy? Sure, he looked somewhat welcoming and nice but beneath that Sarah could sense something, something a bit darker, a bit sadder than what was seen upfront. And she’d only known, or in fact seen, Ron for a second or two; the poor thing was alone and scared. All these thoughts ran through her head in rapid succession and she decided to approach the situation differently; she ignored his question. “Who are you? What are you?” she queried, power was knowledge and if she could work out what this person wanted with Ron, she could make her next move. 

“I’m the Doctor! Hello.” That smile was back, bright and blinding; Sarah nearly winced as the headache from earlier made itself known again. 

“And you’re an alien? Oooor a man who just has an alien ship? Or are you secretly an actor hired by someone, hitherto unknown to me, to play a stupid, silly, completely irrational prank on me?” All of this was said with a completely blank look on her face, she wanted answers and by-golly she was going to get them.

“Um, the first one. But that’s not important, what is important is that you tell me what you saw earlier today because it really would be a big help and you might just save a few lives in the process.” Throughout the man’s speech, this so-called ‘Doctor’, his face had gotten serious, this, clearly, was not a laughing matter.

A few lives? This had gotten far more serious than she’d have ever thought or suspected “What is it…” She swallowed dryly and tried again “What is it that you need to know?” 

A pleased smile took over his face, gentler than his previous mad grin, which was making it’s way across his face again as he plucked something out of his inner jacket pocket “Well! 4 months 2 days and precisely 12 hours and 44 minutes ago the Rag’eshii’s royal family from the bazoid quadrent alerted the Shadow Proclomation of their 2-year-old son’s disappearance, believed to have been kidnapped from the royal palace, the heir to the throne was gone. Poof! Completely disappeared!” At this the Doctor became more and more animated in his speech, pacing in front of the wide-eyed Sarah. “No one could find anything and so they called me and luckily for me the thing that kidnapped the son emitted a low type of gamma radiation which doubled when they used whatever it was as transportation, my guess is one of those nasty wrist teleports, horrible things, but good for me! Because! They can only travel so far and the most popularised and inhabited planet close enough to jump too was? You guessed it! Earth! So their here, now how did I come to find you? Well, the gamma radiation, previously stated is easily followed with my trusty little sonic” At this he started waving whatever it was that he had snatched from his inner pocket; waving it up and down and around Sarah’s face who had so far not blinked once during the Doctor’s explanation. “And so I followed the path of radiation, however, imagine my surprise when I came across you, you are emitting tons of the stuff! Loads of it! At first I thought it might be you, even watched you for a bit to find out for myself. Oh don’t look at me like that! Anyway it wasn’t you, no; you’re as human as they come! No, but something IS feeding off of you, replacing whatever they took with that radiation, my guess is to make themselves seem more human. So what I need to know is has there been anything suspicious lately? Anything you’ve seen or noticed. It’s of the utmost importance.” He drifted off into silence as he thought over his newest conclusion while Sarah had stopped blinking near the beginning of the speech, she found herself scarcely able to breath, in face, she didn’t think she was breathing at all. Safe in the knowledge that purple was never her colour, she deigned herself to breathe and as she brought in a new lungful of air her brain zoomed into work going over all the relevant things she’d heard and was able to answer, leaving the other more confusing and certainly more frightening things to when she could process them. 

She thought she’d start with an introduction, no need to be rude after all; “My names Sarah.” A beat of silence while he looked at her as if she had just sprouted another head. “And he’s called Ron. Oh, well, he’s not really called Ron I guess, it’s just what I named him and I didn’t see him for long but he was under my desk and eating a rat and I went to touch him, y’know, because he looked so frightened and he needed a hug and everyone has always told me that I give great hugs but then a bang sounded from outside and he went crazy, y’know, just bouncing around the sides of my desk and I tried to help him and get him calmed down but then it happened again and he screamed so loud that I thought my brain would pop out.” A deep breath in, “So I covered my ears and by the time I looked up he was escaping through the ventilation grate.” The last sentence was spoken sedately as if she hadn’t just talked 24 miles an hour and attempted to break the speaking-to-light ratio. 

The Doctor had a somewhat gob-smacked expression on his face as he mouthed the word ‘Ron’ then shook his head “Well, Sarah, lovely to meet you.” For a minute there Sarah thought he might go for a handshake and then a hug, until he finally settled on an awkward pat on the shoulder.


End file.
